#HaltonWasteChallenge Weekly! Week 8: Zero-Waste Party Decor

I hope you’re all finding time to get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather! Halton has many great spaces for hiking, picnics, and more. If you’re busy (like so many of us are) you could consider getting outside just by walking or cycling for some of your short trips. A wheely bag or a bike trailer is a life saver for running errands.

The weekly challenge I’m writing about this week is one I did for our little guy’s first birthday a few months ago. I wanted some decor to make it look a little bit like a birthday party, but of course I wasn’t going to buy super-packaged, made-of-plastic, disposable party decor.

I wanted a bunting banner to say “Happy 1st Birthday”, so I cut triangles out of an old, torn pair of jeans and used a small amount of bleach to make the letters. I had hoped to cover up part of the fabric and use the sun to do the bleaching, but a quick search told me that denim doesn’t bleach very well in the sun. If you have any thoughts on other fabrics that would work, or “greener” ways to bleach it, please share!! I don’t often use bleach but I do keep a small jug to sanitize secondhand diapers when I first get them, and I will not use up the full jug before it degrades. So there was no extra packaging purchased for the buntings, but I would rather use something less harsh than bleach.

I safety pinned the letters to an old piece of twine, and have already reused the letters once by rearranging for another event. For future events I will just add letters as needed and rearrange them to say what I like. This first event took some time commitment to cut and bleach the triangles, but once I have a stock built up it will probably take less time to rearrange the letters than it would to go to a store and buy new decor.

Give it a try and share your pictures! Have you tried anything else to make your events low-waste? What do you think about a party with so little decor? Does it still make for a good party? Post your thoughts and experiences in the comments below or share to our social media pages:

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